


Tides of War

by stover



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Battle Girl, Battle Girlfriends, Fighting, Gen, retrieval mission, ships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-23
Updated: 2017-10-23
Packaged: 2019-01-21 20:03:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,476
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12464880
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stover/pseuds/stover
Summary: On a mission to collect foreign alien tech, Allura and Pidge are ambushed by none other than the elite sweeper team that's given them so much trouble over the past few months.





	Tides of War

**Author's Note:**

  * For [InklingDancer](https://archiveofourown.org/users/InklingDancer/gifts).



> For InklingDancer on tumblr. Not sure if they go by the same name here, so didn't DL them. (If you're reading this, please DM me @s-tover with your AO3 username!)

 

The mining islands were far from the city of Sarcius. They were stout, grey hills from the wharf that became massive, charcoal-black mountains as the Voss Company’s ships approached them. Standing erect at the ship’s front deck was a saurian man with tough, leathery hide as yellow as the jaundye roots that dug deep through the forest city of Sarcius. He had sharp, hazel eyes to stare unblinkingly upon the orelands, as their journey was soon to approach its end and he knew all too well how greedily the island’s rocky seabed claims ships. He had no hair, for his kind did not have such features, so his head was smooth and cold all around its flattened, scaly surface.

Beside him stood a child quite unlike how his kind were; her skin very smooth and very fair, like their sickly-hatched offspring, and bright hair the color of copper. She was chewing vigorously on roasted jaundye, the sweet sap of the root deeply carmelized through its length and crystalizing on its hardened surface. Her bright eyes were enamored not on the sea, as was the case with her warrior companion, but instead on the creature at her feet. It was a large, lizard-like creature with two sets of beetle-black eyes and hide the color of dusty hay. Its fat belly dragged along the floor when it walked. For now, it rested against the wet floorboards on deck as the creature looked eagerly up at the young child, eyes shining with rapt curiosity no longer at the child’s foreign features but on the stick of roasted jaundye.

The child cooed affectionately, “Aw, you’re like a cute space dog, aren’t ya?”

The creature gave a throaty hum, the thin, leathery flap of skin hanging from its neck vibrating and flashing a rainbow of bright colors. 

“Whoa, what the—How’d you do that? Bioluminescence? Or maybe it’s more hormonal?” The child clamped her fists on either ends of the jaundye root in her hand. “Here,” she offered, snapping the root in half, “You can have another piece.”

The creature’s eyes lit up and opened its mouth, a large, gaping orifice that turned wider as the thin flap on its neck expanded in full. The creature caught the stick of jaundye and closed its mouth greedily. A gentle hiss seeped through the silent deck as acid began to bubble in the creature’s mouth. Slowly, the stick of jaundye began to melt away.

The child grinned. “That’s  _ so _ cool.”

“Pidge,” spoke a woman’s voice, “don’t overfeed the Vyspers.”

The reprimand came from a woman similar in features to the child with copper hair—warm, russet-brown skin, eyes like the brightest of polished gems in the orelands, and airy, voluminous curls. Her gentle appearance hardly detracted from her stern face and regal tone. Her sudden appearance on deck had the saurian man standing at attention, the plates of his metal armor clinking as he turned. Pidge, too, turned towards her, albeit with slumped shoulders and a sullen look.

Pidge pouted, “You’re no fun.”

The woman frowned. “We’re not here to have fun. We’re here to provide protection.” She produced a slim device made of transparent glass, pink in color, from an attachment at her wrist. It laid flat across her palm as the fingers on her other hands danced over its smooth surface. Strings of data unraveled in fast-moving lines, the Altean symbols moving at a pace only the woman could keep track of. “We don’t know yet what Lotor wants with the oreland’s black grains. Lance and Hunk are still on mission with the Blade to find out, but with the black and blue lions temporarily out of commission, securing the teludav from the Zalfos is the only way to tip the balance of power back in our favor.”

Pidge scowled. “I know  _ that. _ But feeding space rock-candy to a space lizard-dog isn’t gonna set us off track.”

“Perhaps not,” the saurian warrior spoke, “But I believe Princess Allura wishes only to stay vigilant. Even a moment’s erring can tilt the scales. It would be disastrous if the Galra claim the teludav.”

Pidge looked chagrinned. “No,  _ duh.” _

Allura sighed loudly, wringing her hands as a crease deepened upon her brow. “I’m sorry, Pidge. I don’t mean to harry you.”

Pidge said nothing for a moment, giving Allura a long, quiet look instead. Then, she slowly nodded her head. “Yeah, I know.” She grinned. “Well, you better keep on being a bangin’ leader. I can be quite a handful, y’know.”

Allura laughed. “Is that a challenge?” she teased.

Pidge guffawed.  _ “I’m _ the challenge, lady.”

The floor of the front deck exploded. A massive figure in Galra uniform broke straight through, exclaiming, “CHALLENGED ACCEPTED!”

Swinging fists came down for them. They clanged against the black steel of a Sarcian-made sword instead, as Allura and Pidge both threw themselves back. The soldiers on deck became a blur of motion, hissing and shouting as they battled against the Galra crew that sprang to action from the broken deck. The captain of the Sarcian army, with whom they’d been speaking to just moments ago, had already thrown himself into the fray, engaging in battle with the heavy-handed soldier who’d broken through their ship’s front deck.

“You’re starting to bore me, little man.” She leaped back, making the ship rock unsteadily, and turned her back on the captain, who lunged forward. She paid him no mind as a shadow of movement came suddenly to halt his actions; suddenly, he was warring with an unknown force that was everywhere and nowhere at all.

“You!” Allura cried, her bayard hissing to life. With a cry, she snapping her weapon forward, the electric pink whip binding tight around her assailant’s left wrist. 

But the uniformed soldier was ready for her. She yanked back on the whip with her free hand, forcing Allura off her feet to tumble forward. “No need to get on your knees, Princess,” the soldier sneered, “I’ll gladly accept whatever service you wish to offer.”

“Then take  _ this, _ assface!” Pidge snarled, appearing out of nowhere to slam her bayard’s taser against the back of the massive soldier. “It’s on the house!”

As she screamed, Allura leapt back to her feet and pulled backed, drawing the line taut. Then, she kicked out to swing her leg over and under the whip, and hooked the heel of her foot over the metal wire as she stomped down hard. The motion was interrupted by a ringing of steel; Allura ducked and side-stepped to the left, simultaneously disabling her weapon only to reactive it to snap it forward against her next opponent. 

“I had her!” cried their first assailant.

The swordswoman ignored her. As the whip came toward her, she retracted her weapon and presented her arm. As Allura’s whip wound tight around her forearm, the swordswoman thrust out with her blade, aiming for the center of Allura’s armored chest.

Allura ducked again, a black steel blade flying over her shoulder to clang against the Galra weapon. The swordswoman looked surprised. It was the captain. A mirthful laugh floated across deck; it was a colorful soldier with a long, pink protrusion from the top of her head fought against the soldiers on deck, red paint dripping down from the front of her uniform. When the grinning soldier dispatched three soldiers with a stolen Sarcian sword, Allura realized it wasn’t red paint that was on the uniform.

“Allura, look out!”

She ducked on instinct, but it was a mistake. She was face-to-face with the faceless Galra soldier. The soldier’s clawed hand was inches away from her shoulder when one of the ship’s Vyspers shot forward with a hiss and sank its teeth into the faceless soldier’s hand. The soldier reared back; the Vysper let go and plopped back on deck. 

A yowling black creature with sleek fur and sharp claws was on the Vysper at once, scratching deep into the hide of the hissing Vysper. The two clawed and bit and hissed as the faceless soldier reached out with both hands toward Allura.

With a growl, Allura flattened both palms on the floorboards and kicked out with her foot, sweeping her leg in an arch and knocking the faceless soldier off-balance. She readied her whip to bind the faceless soldier’s wrists together, but the fierce cry of her first assailant threw that priority overboard.

“HRRRRRAAAAAAGH!” The massive figure barreled through what few Sarcian soldiers were left on deck. Allura took a battle-ready stance, her mind running through whatever options she still had while standing cornered at the edge of a ship out on water. But she learned quickly how much she had yet to learn about teamwork when the sudden rattling of a metal chain shooting through the air ended with the sharpened spear-end of Pidge’s hookshot piercing flesh and splintering the bone of the massive Galra soldier’s right leg.

The enraged scream was loud enough to make her ears ring. Louder was the pained shout when the hookshot sprung backwards, pulling out of the Galra soldier’s leg with a loud crack and spraying blood and shards of bone all over the deck. Allura had little time to react, for the faceless soldier had sprang up to her feet. Allura flicked her wrist to direct the movement of her whip, but the faceless soldier was too fast for her—she was halfway across the deck by the time Allura had brought her whip back for a second try. 

As she tried to engage the faceless one in battle, two Sarcian soldiers leaped forward to attacked the downed Galra soldier. But the large soldier was far from surrendering. One Sarcian, she merely swatted back as if he were nothing but an fly. The other, she caught by the neck and slammed him down. She squeezed her monstrous hand around the man’s neck as she looked to the side and growled, eyes glinting with murderous rage. “That hurt,” she snarled, crushing the Sarcian’s neck with her bare hand.

A soft hissing sound came from the Galra soldier’s wound. Wisps of steam rose gently into the air, and the two paladins watched in horror as the wound on the soldier’s leg began to heal—bone cracked as it re-grew and tendons stitched together beneath a rippling layer of new skin that stretched slowly over the wound. With a flicker of movement, the brightly colored one was beside her comrade to help her up.

The massive soldier, once so fixated on Allura, now had eyes only for Pidge. “You weak little child,” she snarled, “I’ll squeeze the blood from your heart and crush your head with my hands.”

Pidge, face pale and expression tight, re-adjusted her hold on her bayard. “Try me. One wrong move and I’ll shoot.”

The brightly-colored one grinned, eyes glinting. “Cuuute. You think you stand a real chance with that thing.”

Pidge’s jaw clenched. “If I can shatter her leg, that means I can break your face.”

“Enough talk,” said the swordswoman, springing back to action and racing for Pidge, “She can’t aim at all of us.”

Allura cracked her whip forward, letting it snap on the ground and forcing the swordswoman to leap backward. “She doesn’t need to,” she said matter-of-factly, giving the swordswoman daring look.

“Then we’ll just have to get rid of you, first.”

Allura took a ready stance, watching the swordswoman carefully. But the swordswoman didn’t advance. She simply stood where she was and did nothing.

“Behind you!” Pidge cried, and Allura immediately thrust her body to the left. Her eyes widened when the sight of a black steel blade swung down and splintered the wooden floorboards. 

It was a Sarcian soldier. Two Sarcian soldiers, with the second thrusting his sword down at her.

Allura drew tight on her whip, caught the underside of the blade and letting it slide for half a second before she pushed up and turned the tip of the blade away from her chest. “What are you doing?!” she cried, arms shaking in protest as she held the sharpened blade away. 

“Get away from me!” Immediately, her heart leapt to her throat as her chest constricted. Pidge! “Get awa—  _ AHH!” _ The terrified scream off-sight made her freeze. 

It was a terrible mistake; in the blink of an eye, there were two swords swinging at her head and no sword she was pushing away from her. Shame flared hot inside her, threatening to show in the form of tears. But she refused to cry, even in death.

“Princess!”

The black-steel sword of the Sarcian captain wrestled against the parries and blows meant for her head. She wasted not a single moment and turned to save Pidge.

Pidge was gone.

“No!” Allura cried in anguish, the tears hot on her face as her anguish turned quickly into anger. “Pidge!”

“I threw her overboard!” The captain of the Sarcian army announced, making her turn to him in shock, “As I will to you!”

Allura gaped at him in shock. 

“There’s sorcery on this ship. And you mustn’t fall victim to it!” Then, with a battlecry, the captain knocked into Allura and sent her into the sea.

She fell into warm, purple water, a thousand bubbles surrounding her like the stars of the galaxy. A hissing fizzle filled her ears; it came from the strange sea. A shadow came over her, and with it a strong grip that found her wrist and yanked her forward. Up, up, and up it pulled her, until she broke into white light and heard the gushing roar of the sea.

Her vision came back in spots of colors—soft strands of copper-brown; an unending pools of deep, dark purple; the dark brown of a ship; the golden-yellow hide of a saurian figure far above, screaming,  _ “—im out! To the orelands! Swim!” _

And then the faceless soldier came slowly behind him, and gently laid a hand on his shoulder. 

The shouting stopped. He stilled for a moment. Then, he turned around and went away. 

Allura heard, even from the waters, the guttural sounds of agony and death forming a ghastly chorus.

“No!” cried Pidge, who’d been the one to pull her out of the water. Her glasses were gone, and her face now open with pain and horror. 

Allura took hold of Pidge’s hand underwater, squeezing tight.

They floated in the water for a few seconds, listening to the roaring chaos of water instead of the roaring chaos of battle.

Pidge pulled her hand away. “We should—We need to go. Before any of them catch up with us or anything. We can’t let them get the teludav.”

“Yes,” Allura said, nodding.

They look at one another, frightened but firm with the resolve of ensuring that the sacrifice of one team—of any team—would not be in vain.

And together, they swam.


End file.
